Hong Kong may throw millions of doses of vaccines against covid-19 in the trash because the expiration date is approaching and few people have registered to receive the drugs, a sign of the population’s distrust, a local official warned.
The former British colony is one of the few places in the world that has managed to secure enough doses to inoculate its population of 7.5 million, but distrust of the government, combined with misinformation on social networks and reduced cases of contagion, have provoked a low level of vaccination.
On Tuesday, a member of the government’s vaccine commission warned that Hong Kong citizens “have a window of just three months” before the first batch of vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech expires.
“These vaccines have an expiration date,” warned Thomas Tsang, a former director of the Health Protection Center.
“They cannot be used after the expiration date and BioNTech’s community vaccination centers will stop operating in September, as planned,” he added.
Only 19% of the city’s population received a dose of any vaccine, while 14% received both doses.
Even among health professionals there are doubts about vaccines. The city’s Hospitals Authority reported this month that only a third of its employees have been immunized.
Hong Kong received 3.26 million doses of vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, but only 1.23 million were applied.
The others must remain stored at very low temperatures and have a shelf life of six months.
The warning from the Hong Kong authorities comes at a time when countries with less resources are looking for vaccines to fight waves of contagion from covid-19.
